TRION’s RIFT World Event Wrap-up

This weekend saw the final phases of TRION’s RIFT River of Souls World Event come to a close with mixed results. After postponing the second and third phases of the River of Souls World Event, yesterday TRION kicked live the final parts of the event. Things did not quite go to plan however as the event was delayed and then the servers became bogged down with queues. TRION had decided to push both of the event’s phases live within a short space of time which left many players frustrated by either being stuck in the server queues or not making it to the event locations in time. In response to concerns of many players, RIFT Producer Scott Hartsman issues a statement when the event finally dame to a close yesterday afternoon:

When we set out to get this unveil event in front of you, it was all about some serious ambitions. Great new types of content to unveil a brand new raid zone. Events that really push the edge of what’s possible not just in Rift, but in any MMO of its kind. All within an incredibly rapid amount of time following launch. In this case, while we did get to “what’s possible” we didn’t get to “solid gameplay for the entire game universe.” The later phases of the event were too concentrated and time-compressed, which caused issues on a number of worlds. Ambition is important — It’s what keeps us improving day to day, week to week, month to month. But, it’s equally important to know when you walked too close to the edge and got cut. Between our previous experience with zone events and now with world events, we have a much better idea of the range we can create “fun” for at a mass scale in the future, and the steps we need to take to continue progressing the more solid gameplay experiences that only happen in RIFT. As I had posted earlier, our next world events will already be taking everything we learned, as well as all of your comments about the event, into account. Please do keep them coming — I guarantee we’re here reading them all, weekend or not. As developers, none of us are happy when anyone who chooses to spend their valuable time in our game feels like they got the short end of our aspirations. To that end, even if something goes great for some, when it doesn’t go great for all, we’re going to go out of our way to make it up in some way wherever we can. We’re going to assume that if you are an active subscriber you were intending to participate in the final stages. 1) Operating on that assumption, later this week everyone will be receiving an in-game mail with the River of Souls Event Reward Pack containing: Symbol of Purity – This item starts a quest you can complete to obtain

250 Otherworldly Sourcestone 1x – Purified Treasure Cache – Contains a random chance of obtaining one of the special world drop event rewards from the day of the event

Shadetouched Weapon Cache – The starter item for the Rare Death weapon quests. You can choose whichever level appropriate one you’d like. The following two Achievements, since not everyone who was (or wanted to be) present was able to obtain them.

Grim Hero Grim Protector

2) The achievement for kneeling to Alsbeth will remain available in her incarnation inside the River of Souls. 3) Additionally, we’re also going to continue the Otherworldly Sourcestone drops for the next few days, for those who haven’t yet finished off their collections and would care to. 4) And since the question has come up quite a few times — the ability to complete the quests from the Shadetouched Weapon Cache will continue, such that you’re always able to finish them. We do thank you for your patience with us during this first ever World Event. We know that patience isn’t infinite. We do respect that fact greatly, and you have our word that we’re listening and reacting smartly for the next round. – Scott

The event seemed highly ambitious, having so many players gathering in one place cuased lag spikes and disonnects. The event went better than the first run last week but TRION will have learned many lesson’s from yesterday’s experience and hopefully by the time the next event comes around things will run a little smoother.